The Office of the Telecommunications Adjudicator (OTA) and Ofcom have announced that, at the end of August 2010, the total number of unbundled ( LLU ) broadband ISP lines in the UK exceeded the significant milestone figure of 7 Million (7.03m)! Unbundled lines give rival ISPs, such as O2 , Sky Broadband and TalkTalk , the ability to manage and control their own services over BT's network and at a lower cost.

This means that unbundled broadband lines line account for one third of the market's 19 million broadband connections (70% are provided by companies other than BT). LLU lines are typically managed by BT's Openreach division, which is responsible for ensuring that all rival ISPs have equality of access to BT's local network.


The move was spurred by Ofcom, which imposed legally-binding rules upon BT Group in September 2005 that forced them to make unbundled lines available and thus improve market competition. TalkTalk , Orange and Be Broadband were three of the first ISPs to take advantage, offering faster speeds and more flexibility at lower prices.

Today there are more than 30 different Communication Providers (CPs) offering unbundled services to homes and small businesses. The extra flexibility and competition has assisted in driving broadband take-up and lowering prices. In September 2005, 37% of UK households and small businesses had broadband; today the figure is over 71%.

Ofcom’s research shows that consumers were paying on average £23.30 a month (+VAT) for broadband at the end of 2005, a price that has since fallen to just £13.31 for the same service.

Regulator Ofcom UK has confirmed plans to simplify the migration process between providers after its own research found that nearly half of consumers (45%) with a fixed line broadband ISP or phone provider felt that changing supplier would simply be too much trouble.

Ofcom noted that 39% of customers whom had switched broadband provider using the Migration Authorisation Code (MAC) process, which doesn't work for all ISPs (e.g. fully unbundled providers), felt it was too much hassle.

Broadband Migration Authorisation Code (MAC) Explained
http://www.ispreview.co.uk/new/complain/common_isp_complaints_migration.php#1

The research also shows that, of the consumers who have switched landline or broadband provider using the Notification of Transfer process (used by most landlines and some bundles of landline and broadband), just 22% thought it was too much hassle.

We have repeatedly called for Ofcom to address some of the remaining problems with broadband and phone migration, not least when migrating between fully unbundled LLU providers, which can sometimes result in downtime and significant additional costs.

In addition, the new generation of "super-fast" broadband services need to consider migration too. For example, customers whom adopt a fibre optic connection should be given a rout back to alternative platforms and must not feel trapped by risks of high costs and downtime. In some cases this could be difficult to achieve, but not impossible.

Thankfully Ofcom has finally agreed and today launched a new consultation of the issue, which will run until 19th November 2010. The regulator has proposed a process in which the customers new ISP would take the lead on switching the service (Gaining Provider Led (GPL)), albeit with new safeguards to protect "slamming" (fraud), where somebody is switched without consent.

The regulator correctly claims that improving migration could also lead to greater competition between providers and lower prices, since customers would no longer be fearful of the process. This is a good move, at least it will be if Ofcom can solve some of the technical as well as process hurdles involved.

Ofcom Migration Review
http://stakeholders.ofcom.org.uk/consultations/consumer-switching/

The controversial Project Canvas (YouView), which claims to be developing an open standard for delivering subscription-free broadband ISP based internet TV ( IPTV ) services, has won more support from 40 consumer device manufacturers.

Canvas, which is already under pressure after Virgin Media lodged an official competition complaint with Ofcom last month (original news), will ultimately be delivered directly into homes via special £100-£200 PVR (Personal Video Recorder) style set-top-boxes.


It's understood that Canvas will now evaluate the responses from consumer device manufacturers and select several, which will then be taken through to the next evaluation stage; most likely by the end of September 2010. Canvas has also released related technical documents on its web site, under the 'Industry and Technology' section.

Despite competition concerns, Project Canvas and its Joint Venture (JV) partners ( BBC, ITV, BT, Channel 4, TalkTalk, Arqiva and Five) are still pressing ahead with plans to become "incorporated this Summer". That doesn't give them long, autumn is about to begin.

Last week we reported on a new Opinium Research survey of over 1,500 adults in the UK, which found that only 35% believed Project Canvas is a good idea. Some 51% of those were waiting to see if it catches on before buying it and 19% said they were usually one of the first of their friends to buy new tech.

The UK Internet Service Providers Association ( ISPA ), specifically its governing council, yesterday voted in four new heavy hitting members representing BT , Eclipse Internet , Everything Everywhere ( Orange , T-Mobile ) and O2 . The council itself is responsible for setting policies and is made up of ten people from the ISPA's 200 strong industry membership list, representing more than 95% of the UK Internet access market by volume.

The move is significant, not least because it is the first time that any of the aforementioned ISPs have had a place on the ISPA's council. In addition, most of the other council members represent smaller businesses and having some heavy weights behind the throne could be useful in giving the organisation more clout.

It goes without saying that UK ISPs are currently under mounting pressure, both in terms of adaption to new technologies and from a vast swathe of fresh government legislation (e.g. new internet copyright infringement laws, ecommerce directives and Network Neutrality policies). New rules and guidelines from the ASA and Ofcom UK are also playing a part.


It's good to see the ISPA getting a bit of extra weight, although there are some areas that could potentially cause contention, such as in regards to new fibre optic line taxation (the tax currently favours big operators over smaller ones); little and large don't always think alike.

Following news earlier this week that BT had quoted £550k to install broadband for just 80 homes in the rural UK village of Erbistock (Wrexham, Wales), a quote that was bested by small ISP rival Rutland Telecom (£50k), the operator has now found a cheaper solution for residents that will only cost them £100 a pop.

BT's original quote was, in fact, just one of several put forward by the operator and the company has since developed other potential solutions, although until now it hadn't said what they were or how much they'd cost.

The majority of local residents have been unable to receive a broadband service due to their homes being too far away from the nearest telephone exchange - Bangor-on-Dee. BT believes it has overcome this challenge by offering residents the option of transferring their line from the Bangor-on-Dee exchange to the closer exchange at Overton-on-Dee.


BT claims that its solution should allow all 80 premises in the area to receive a stable copper broadband service, with speeds of between 1-4Mbps. Interested residents will still have to pay £100 to be swapped by their chosen broadband ISP, which must action the request, and will also lose their existing telephone number.

Small ISP Rutland Telecom (RT) UK, which quoted £50k for brining significantly faster FTTC broadband speeds of up to 40Mbps to the area, cried foul last week (here) and alleged that BT had shown no real interest in Erbistock until RT made an offer earlier this year. RT has historically been very critical of BT and caused them some regulatory problems, perhaps this is BT's attempt at karma.

It's a little known fact that even "super-fast" fibre optic broadband cables, especially those that run over very long distances (between countries), can suffer from performance loss due to unique forms of optical interference. Now scientists working at the University of Southampton's Optoelectronics Research Centre (ORC) have developed a practical solution that could result in significantly faster fibre optic networks.

The new data transmission system, which is being developed as part of the EU-funded FP7 PHASORS project, could potentially eliminate this problematic interference. The device essentially takes an incoming "noisy data signal" and restores its quality, improving both the capacity and energy efficiency of the optical communication network.


Reducing the build up of phase noise and also any amplitude noise might not seem important to most people, although improving the capacity of existing cross-border fibre optic cables (e.g. undersea cables) might help to make bandwidth cheaper. It's conceivable that such a benefit could also filter down to broadband ISPs and subscribers.


Indeed it is the very introduction of bandwidth-hungry video applications, such as popular web-based services like YouTube, and the continued growth of the internet in general that has triggered this hunt for more efficient data signalling formats.


At present the device has already been tested using the fastest commercial electronics, which can push data at rates of up to 40Gbps (Gigabits per second). However the novel solution could be used with networks that go much faster.

A new Norton Cybercrime Report - The Human Impact - has revealed that Copyright Holders (Rights Holders) face an uphill struggle with convincing people to stop using their broadband ISP connections for "illegal" file sharing (p2p) activity. Nearly half of respondents felt it "legal" to download a single music track, album or movie without paying (17%, 14%, and 15% respectively).


The study continues on to claim that, despite these "shaky ethics and questionable behaviour", only a fifth of adults (22%) say they have online regrets. In addition, across all of the countries involved, a third have used a fake online identity and 45% lie about personal details (age, sex, income, etc.); although this could be to protect personal privacy.

However, people in the UK are relatively squeaky clean, with only 18% using a false online ID or 33% lying about personal details.


Some 7,000 adults in 14 countries around the world participated in Norton's study, which also found that 65% have been a victim of cybercrime.

The national Civic Voice campaign group, which aims to make places in the UK more attractive, enjoyable and distinctive by having ugly signs and objects (e.g. road signs and bollards) removed, has turned its attention to the new generation of "super-fast" 40Mb fibre optic ( FTTC ) based broadband services being rolled out in St Albans and elsewhere around the country.

The situation is similar to one that we first covered during March of this year, when BT engineers trying to install an FTTC cabinet in St Albans (The Ridgeway) were thwarted after angry residents blocked them from completing its construction (original news).

In fact BT's large new 1.8m tall, dark green, FTTC junction boxes (street cabinets) have been slated on numerous occasions in other areas too, with people accusing them of being "unsightly" and causing an obstruction. Residents in Muswell Hill, North London (here) and Brighton and Hove / Middlewich (here) have in the past raised almost identical concerns.

Now Vanessa Gregory of Chiswell Green (St Albans) has teamed up with other members of Civic Voice to take on BT Openreach as part of a national campaign to control the operators proliferation of "super-fast" FTTC broadband boxes around the country.


Ms Gregory and members of Civic Voice are expected to meet with BT Openreach on 22nd September, where they hope to force BT into being more flexible with FTTC cabinet design and colours (pink and purple, anybody? ). They will also encourage BT to develop "alternative technologies", allowing the removal of street cabinets once redundant.

In fairness BT are guilty of, at times, failing to inform local authorities and councils about the exact locations of their new cabinets. Likewise some of BT's rivals have found ways of hiding the cabinets underground, raising them only when necessary, which is something that BT itself could consider.

Some 77,000 homes and businesses in Hoddesdon, Waltham Cross, St Albans, Lea Valley and Watford (Hertfordshire towns) are now able to get BT's super-fast broadband service, which aims to reach 66% of UK premises by 2015. We would be happy to have an "ugly" FTTC cabinet on our street, as would many others, if it meant getting a decent broadband speed. Credits to Thinkbroadband for spotting the news.

Several new surveys today have revealed that British people continue to value their broadband ISP connection above almost everything else. A Sky News study of 1,000 people found that, in the harsh economic climate, the last thing somebody would do to save money is give up a pet or their broadband subscription; most would rather cut back on food than lose their internet access.


A separate study from Clydesdale and Yorkshire Bank agreed, finding that 93% of us would only give up broadband as a last resort. Broadband was also rated as one of the most important "must haves", above cable / satellite TV and holidays in the UK.


The two survey results are no longer surprising and have been supported by plenty of other recent research, all of which show that high-speed internet access is now a vital service. Certainly we all love our TV's and iPod's but for most the idea of living without broadband is now almost impossible to conceive. Social networking services, such as Facebook, have had a big part to play in that.

Earlier this week UK ISP O2 officially re-launched its fixed line broadband packages under new names, 'The Basics', 'The All Rounder' and 'The Works', while also doing away with its old "unlimited downloads" slogan and replacing it with a tighter Fair Usage Policy (full details). Today we learn that O2 has also imposed a much stricter Traffic Management policy, which strangles P2P and video streaming ( e.g. BBC iPlayer ) services. In some cases this will reduce customer speeds to the barely usable level of just 50Kbps (0.05Mb).

The harshest restrictions will naturally occur during the busiest times of day (typically the afternoon and evening), when O2 shape Peer to Peer (P2P - file sharing) traffic to a maximum throughput of just 50kbps.

Customers of O2's other BT-based fixed line broadband package (O2 Access) have of course been subjected to similar restrictions for some time now, although unbundled ( LLU ) users have previously been able to avoid such tight limits.

In fairness, O2 has at least been open by publishing its restrictions (further details), while many other ISPs still prefer to keep them under wraps or behind vague lines of FUP text. Never the less this will be viewed as quite disturbing by some, especially given that the new packages already have soft FUP usage allowances (i.e. The Basics (20GB), The All Rounder (100GB) and The Works(250GB)).

However those who might be thinking about switching ISP would do well to hold tight. New Ofcom and ASA rules are due to surface soon that could force a lot more providers to be open about any restrictions they impose, although we do say "could".

One interesting point to make about Traffic Management is that, at some extremes, it could conflict with the government's promise to make a minimum download speed of 2Mb available to everybody in the country by 2015. Sadly though, the USC is not a legal "obligation". Credits to Thinkbroadband for spotting O2's change.

One final point to make, O2's new restrictions are not clearly visible or linked to from the related package detail pages. Testament to this is the fact that it took several days before the changes were even spotted and we did do some extensive hunting.

A network optimisation specialist, Blue Coat Systems, has warned that the latest BBC iPlayer V3 update, which launched earlier this week and added lots of new social networking style features to the UK internet TV streaming service, could make office networks "unworkable".

The latest iPlayer now offers the ability to automatically download future episodes of TV Series. Blue Coat claims that anyone who uses a work PC for iPlayer and marks a series as a "favourite" will now automatically download all new episodes (possibly at 1.5GigaBytes per hour if in HD or 630MB if non). This could easily help to soak up an organisation's bandwidth.


The recent 2010 World Cup event, which was held in South Africa, illustrated that UK broadband ISPs and office networks were generally able to cope with the added load. However some matches did push a number of internet providers closer to the limit of what they could handle.

It remains to be seen whether the new iPlayer features will have a negative impact. In addition the new service upgrades don't just impact office workers but consumer broadband connections too. It will be interesting to see whether, over the coming months, UK ISPs notice a sharper uptick in usage from the BBC's service.

Ofcom has approved a request by all five of the UK's primary mobile operators ( Vodafone , O2 , Orange , T-Mobile and Three (3) ) to increase the maximum in-band power limit for 3G mobile spectrum licences from 62dBm per carrier to 65dBm. The move could improve voice capacity, Mobile Broadband internet data throughput and in-building signal availability.

The increase, which will also apply to future 2GHz MSS/CGC licences (used by the ground-based component of mobile Satellite services), would only affect base transmit power in the Frequency Division Duplex (FDD) portion of the 3G spectrum.

Ofcom claims that in practice this will have no adverse effect on the operation of services in adjacent spectrum bands. Indeed it had sought to push the figure even higher, to 68dBm, although most mobile operators rejected this because they had only planned for a rise to 65dBm.

It is necessary to point out that Ofcom's decision does not affect all future 3G and 4G allocations, such as for 900MHz and 1800MHz, which will be subject to separate considerations.